The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (190721).Volume III. Renascence and Reformation.

VII. Reformation and Renascence in Scotland.

§ 14. Ninian Winzet.

A larger amount of work was produced by Ninian Winzet, another Catholic controversialist, who, in his Certain Tractatis for Reformation of Doctryne and Manneris (1562), frankly admitted the corruptions of the Catholic church in Scotland, but contended that they afforded no rational ground for changing the national religion. It is noteworthy in Winzet and other Roman Catholic writers of the time that they claimed to be the upholders of the national tradition not only in religion but in policy. In the alliance with England, but for whose intervention the reformation in Scotland would not have been accomplished, they saw the ruin of their country; and all things English were the objects of their special detestation. For this reason it was that they resented the intrusion of English words into the Scottish vocabulary, and regarded it as a patriotic duty to write in what they considered the purest Scots. In a well known sentence, Winzet caustically upbraids Knox (who, in point of fact, wrote for England as well as for Scotland) for his use of English modes of expression. Gif you, he writes, throw curiositie of novations has forget our auld plane Scottis quhilk your mother lerit you: in tymes cuming I sall write to you my mynd in Latin; for I am not acquynted with your Southeroun.